


She's gone

by constellationary



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: F/M, Glader Slang, Gladers, In the Maze, Nightmares, Reader-Insert, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 17:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12587200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellationary/pseuds/constellationary
Summary: The reader makes a reckless decision and joins Thomas in running into the maze the moment before it's closed off to help save Minho and Alby. Will they make it out alive? Gally is convinced they won't.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a few reader insert fics I wrote and posted on tumblr a while ago. I probably won't be writing anything else for this fandom, since I'm not too into it anymore.

Where are they?“ The question is muttered over and over and over. It fills the air. Mumbled under breaths, accented with the sound of nervous fidgeting and pacing. Everyone stands by the door. Waiting. Watching. Hoping for Minho and Alby to come sprinting into view.

“What if they don’t make it in time? Is there any way to survive in there?” You stop mid-pace and turn to Gally.

He takes your hand and holds it tight. His face is grim and worried. “I don’t know. Not that anyone we know has figured out…but you have to realize they may not come back, Y/N. No matter what, we’ll move forward. We have to.”

You shake your head before he’s even finished talking. “No. No, they’ll get through this. I know they will…they have to.” With that you pull your hand away and move up close to the doors. Newt is there right by the gate, completely still. His eyes are blankly staring into the ivy draped walls of the maze. You don’t know what to say to him…you’ve never been good with words. Thomas stands nearby, fidgeting and moving restlessly. The tension in the air is tangible as you all lay in wait. 

“Can’t we send someone after them?” Thomas asks, frustration tinging his words. 

Newt, sounding resigned, answers first. “It’s against the rules. We can’t risk losing anyone else.” You hear Gally behind you. "Either they make it or don’t.” That’s when the doors start to close. 

“Oh no…” Chuck says quietly. The sense of dread settles into the pit of your stomach, weighing you down.

“I SEE THEM!”

There they are, Minho yelling and dragging Alby with all his might. The gladers erupt into shouts, some encouraging him, some telling him to leave Alby behind. But you can tell from the look on his face that there’s no way he’ll do that.

You have to help. There’s no way you’re just going to stand there and watch the doors close on your friends. Without a second thought, you break out into a sprint, headed straight into the maze. 

You feel hands brushing against you, trying to grab you, stop you, as you lurch out of their reach and straight into the ever-closing door space. But you keep running. All you can think is that you can get there in time to help. You have to help them.

Gally’s voice can be heard far above the rest. “Y/N! Y/N NO! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” But you know he’s not close enough to stop you.

Out of the corner of your eye you see Thomas, sprinting right behind you, rushing to get through before the doors crush you both. With a final lunge, you break through to the other side, pulling Thomas with you.

You both collapse to the ground in front of the doors. But this time, from the inside. As you turn your eyes up, you see Minho stare at you dead on, his face obviously showing his exhaustion from Alby’s weight. “Good job. You just killed yourself.”

——————————————–—————–

“NO!” Gally almost trips over himself in his attempt to stop her. Running, praying. Everything seems to go in slow motion. He sees the hands trying to grab her. He sees her escape the hands. He sees her sprint into the maze. He sees a glimpse of her beautiful face for what is undoubtedly the last time. Then he sees nothing but cold, stone doors right in front of him.

She’s gone. 

It haunts his mind, the thought echoing and bouncing around, crescendoing until it’s a scream, overwhelming his conscious thoughts. She’s gone. He’ll never see the endearing way she tries to hide a smile behind her hand when he says something stupid. He’ll never again hear her sweet laughter, the laughter that somehow managed to settle itself comfortably into his heart. He’ll never feel her soft hands trace his skin, carefully, gently. Not anymore. No one survives a night in the maze. The maze doesn’t care that she’s his only happiness. The maze has stolen her with no glimmer of regret. 

Gally’s fists are suddenly against the doors, hitting, punching, attacking, as if it will bring his love back from the grave. He knows that his hands should be feeling some sort of pain- he sees blood, brought out by the rough facets of rock- but he’s numb, his skin is numb, his head is numb. He feels everything and nothing at once. 

He registers arms on his shoulders, trying to pull him back. Relentless. He attempts to shake them off, but they only pull harder. He turns and screams at them, throws his body against the stone, it has to open, it just has to. Even more hands fall on him, he can hear the people around him talking to him but he doesn’t even care. Gally stumbles backwards and falls on his knees.

She’s gone.

——————————————–—————–

“What do you mean, we’ve killed ourselves?” Thomas asks Minho. “We came in here to try and help you.”

He shakes his head grimly. “You don’t get it. The maze at night is a death sentence. There’s no shucking way those grievers aren’t going to catch you, and when they do, I’m not gonna be around to see it.” He turns away from you and starts walking. 

“So what? You’re just gonna leave us?” You ask incredulously. 

“You did this to yourself, and I’m faster on my own. Do me a favor, try not to get killed.” In only a moment, he was gone. 

You begin to panic. You’ll never get out of the maze. You’ll never see Gally again. You’re going to die!

Thomas sees this and reassures you. “Hey, hey. We can do this okay? We’ve just gotta figure out some way to get Alby safe.”

“Okay…okay, we can do that. One step at a time right?” You look around yourself at the maze. “If we leave him here, would the grievers attack him? We just need to get him through the night.”

“No,” Thomas says. “We can’t just leave him by the doors, any passing griever would attack. But maybe…could we hide him somewhere?”

You search the walls. All you see is ivy, and you wouldn’t be able to get enough for a pile to hide Alby under before the grievers came out. But you can’t leave him on the ground…you walk over and pull on a vine. It’s stable. Your mind starts to run a mile a minute and you catch an idea in the midst. “Thomas! I’ve got it. We can tie him up on the wall with the ivy. That way they won’t see him and we can get him down in the morning. Well…if we make it till then.”

“Y/N, you’re a genius! Let’s do this,” Thomas answers. “We can’t push him up the wall by ourselves, so we’ll need to do it bit by bit. Tie his arms, then legs, then move the arms higher and tie, then the legs again, and on like that.”

“Perfect!” Soon, however, you realize how not perfect, and very difficult this task is. Alby is heavy. Like, really heavy. You and Thomas are sweating and exhausted by the time you’ve gotten him halfway up the wall. It’s then that you hear the first heart-stopping sounds of metal, coming your way, fast.

Your face grows pale. “Thomas. What do we do? Where do we go?”

“I don’t know. Alby will be safe up here, I think. Just…lets get down from this wall, then follow me.” He carefully unties himself and starts to retreat, and you do the same. On the hard ground of the dirt below you and with the maze walls looming over you, you begin to realize how real this situation is. You could die at any second. There’s no safety in the maze. Not anywhere.

Thomas breaks into a jog. You follow close behind, wondering how he’s so calm. He’s always doing the most impulsive, dangerous things and yet he always turns out all right and seems totally chill about whatever it was he did. Though, you guess this time you did the dangerous thing too, so you can’t say anything. 

You both stop dead in your tracks when a griever rolls around a corner to land in front of you. “Come on!” you say, retreating, but before you make it 10 steps you see another griever appear where you just came from. “No no no no no,” you mutter to yourself. “We’re dead. We are so, so dead.”

“Stay close to me. We’ll try to dodge past them. Duck low and move fast. We can do this,” Thomas says quietly. The screeching of steel against steel grows as they close in on you. You feel sick looking at them, their disgusting skin rippling in the moonlight. You glance at Thomas, and he yells, “Now!” 

You dive to the left of one of the grievers. It doesn’t grab you, but you feel a sharp pain in your arm and shoulder. Glancing down, you see blood rapidly seeping out of a large cut- it must have caught you with one of its blades. You scramble to your feet, adrenaline numbing the pain. Thomas is already running; you sprint after him. The sound of the grievers terrifies you, but you can’t stop now. 

After a couple minutes of running, you can tell you’re almost griever meat. You know that they’re slowly catching up to you, and not even your fastest could outrun them forever. Right when you’re about to give up, you see Minho jump out from behind a corner and grab Thomas’s arm, pulling him in a new direction. You let out a surprised noise but follow them. 

Minho yells back to you and Thomas as he runs. “They’re slower than we are going around the corners. We’ll outrun them for now. Come on, I have a plan!” You don’t question it. You just run. 

After following him through a seemingly endless set of sharp turns, the path leads to a sheer drop off. “Minho! We’re trapped! What the shuck are you doing?” Thomas asks. 

“Just trust me shank, okay? When they roll at you, jump out of the way at the last second. They won’t be able to stop the momentum and they’ll sail right over the cliff. Get ready, here they come!”

One rolls at you with frightening speed, its metal arms clashing together every few seconds. It takes all your will to stand your ground, but you manage it. At the last second, you dive. The griever goes flying past you. It’s actually working!

A few more join the party, rolling at Thomas and Minho. They send them over the edge in no time and soon, everything is quiet. “You need this,” Minho says to you, holding out a piece of cloth he pulled from his pack. “Hold out your arm.” You do, vaguely surprised at how much blood there is. He ties the cloth tightly around your wound, and you ask if you can sleep. “Yeah. I’ll keep watch.” You nod gratefully, slumping to the ground and closing your eyes. As you fade away, you hear Thomas crying. 

——————————————–—————–

“Gally, come on,” Jeff says. “Just let me help.” He holds crumpled bandages and some antiseptic in his hands. 

Gally just shakes his head emotionlessly. “No. Leave me alone.”

“Please. You’re hurt, I need to clean-”

“Don’t you understand?!” Gally yells, suddenly standing and grabbing a hold of Jeff’s shirt with fire in his eyes. “I could have saved her! It’s my fault that she’s dead, I’m supposed to protect her! I promised myself, the very shucking day that she came up in that box, that I’d protect her. And now she’s dead and I could have stopped it, I could have- something could- I- I promised.” Gally lets go of the shirt, breathing heavily, and stumbles back a few steps, leaning his back against the door of the maze, where he’s been all night since they closed. 

“Gally, there’s still a chance. They could have made it. There’s a first to everything.”

“No.” His face is broken and still. “She’s gone.”

——————————————–—————–

“Hey, Y/N. Wake up. It’s light. The doors will open soon.” You sit up groggily. It’s Thomas speaking to you. He looks exhausted, as does Minho, you notice as you look to him too. You probably do too, but at least you got sleep. 

Thomas offers his hand and helps you up. Your head spins as you stand upright, probably from blood loss. You can still walk though, so you follow Minho and Thomas, holding to the wall for support. 

When you reach the doors, they’re still closed. “Let’s get Alby down,” Minho glances at you. “Yeah, Thomas told me all about your shucking crazy plan to string him up there. Let’s hope he’s alive.” 

You can barely walk, so you let the boys get Alby down from the wall. The moment he’s on the ground, you check for a pulse. It’s faint, but it’s there. “He’s alive,” you say, relieved. 

The four of you wait impatiently near the door, one unconscious, one near to that, and the other two sleep deprived. What a pathetic bunch. Despite that, you smile to yourself. You all actually did it. You survived a night in the maze. 

When the doors start to rumble, you shoot to your feet. You almost fall over, but catch yourself on the wall. All you can think about is Gally. You can’t wait to hold him, let go of control and just be happy again. You see a sliver of light through the opening and almost cry in relief. When it’s halfway open, the yelling starts from the other side.

“They’re alive!!! They’re okay!!!” You hear someone shout, as you make your way through the doors. Minho and Thomas are dragging Alby. Your head whips around and finally lands on what you’re looking for- Gally. He looks like he’s in shock, standing there right next to the entrance, but then his face breaks into a relieved laugh and he rushes for you. 

He picks you up in his arms and spins you around, muttering “you’re alive, you’re alive,” over and over again. It’s the tightest he’s ever held you. 

You start to cry, a mixture of happiness and exhaustion. “Yeah. I’m alive. I love you, I love you. I’m alive.”

“I’m here,” he tells you. “I love you too. Don’t worry, I’m here.” At one point someone approaches to talk to you but Gally immediately tells them to back off. You don’t even care. You’re just relieved to be in his arms again. He strokes your hair and says, “Shuck, Y/N. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” 

You let out a small laugh through your tears. “I think I’m okay with that, Gally.”


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the reader's night in the maze leaves scars that can't be seen from the surface.

The maze is dark. You know there should be stars in the sky, but no matter how many times you check, they’re still not there. As you walk- not sure where you’re going or why you’re even in the maze- you try to make your eyes adjust. The pitch black sets your teeth on edge. A slight breeze ruffles your hair and you shiver.

Turn after turn after turn. You are so, utterly, completely lost. Navigating the maze is hard enough, but without sight? Nearly impossible. Your hands feel along the walls, the rough stone, to know when to turn. It’s the only compass you have. In the midst of this, though, your hand stops. It’s hit something…slimy.

You scream and the lights in the sky and the maze all suddenly flash on and they’re too bright, they’re floodlights burning into your corneas. It’s a griever in front of you. It’s mechanical whirring and its immensity stop your heart in place. You stumble backwards, almost falling. The air seems to get twenty degrees colder as you turn and sprint away. Your breath comes in heaving gasps. If you aren’t fast enough, you’re going to die. You feel something sharp catch you in the back and warm blood drips down your spine…your face twists in shock and pain.

Suddenly the scene shifts. You’re standing in a clearing inside of the maze somewhere. The formidable walls tower above you, trapping you. Your gaze shifts to see Gally in the center, dodging a griever. He holds a long wooden stick in his hands and is trying to defend himself with it, but it isn’t working. You can’t control yourself; you scream his name.

He turns at the sound of your voice. While he is distracted, the griever pierces him with its cruel blade, skewering him all the way through.

You can’t breathe. All your eyes can focus on is the deep crimson liquid seeping from his wound. He’s dead he’s gone what are you going to do it’s your fault you killed him! Spinning in a circle, you try to grasp what’s going on. You fall to your knees.

The scene shifts again. You’re in the glade, standing around the supply box. Sullen faces are everywhere and their glares are all pointed at you.

Newt speaks. “You killed him, Y/N. It’s all your fault.” The crowd murmurs in agreement. “You killed Gally, and now you have to die.”

You try to speak but you can’t. Nothing comes out of your mouth. Tears, however, do escape, the salty wetness trailing down your cheeks, screaming with regret and anguish. ‘I didn’t mean to,’ you try to cry out. ‘I loved him, I wouldn’t kill him-’ but not a sound leaves your lips.

The boys start to herd you towards the edge of the box. You try to push back, break through, but it’s no use. Soon, you reach the very edge. You totter on the precipice, a slight breeze or finger tap away from falling to your death.

Gally emerges from the crowd of boys across from you and your heart stops. “You killed me, Y/N. How could you?” He looks heartbroken and furious. You watch as his face steels, and before you can say anything he gives a signal.

With that, you are pushed into the blackness. You can see grievers down the hole in the darkness- ten, twenty- they’re going to tear you to shreds and you won’t even get a chance to apologize to Gally, you didn’t mean to cause his death! You hear yourself cry out and it echoes around and off the walls, drumming into your brain, pounding. You can hear the gladers chanting your name up above. “Y/N, Y/N, Y/N…”

——————————————–

“Y/N! Princess, please wake up. Y/N, please..” It’s Gally. But his voice is caring and sweet. Your consciousness shifts in an instant and you lurch forward, eyes wide, sitting up. “There you go, Princess. You’re okay. It’s just a dream. You were just having a nightmare.” Gally sits next to you and you bury your face in his chest.

“You…I killed you but I didn't mean to…and then- then there were the grievers, and it was all my- I didn’t mean to- I could feel them, they got me- I couldn’t- I, I, you hated me- I-” Your words are barely formed, sobs taking over your body.

“Shhhh. Y/N, you’re okay now. It’s all over.” His arms are wrapped tightly around you. “It was just a dream. I’m alright, you’re alright, it’s all okay.” He holds you and talks quietly to you as your crying dies down.

“It was so real,” you whisper when your chest is finally still. Your voice sounds hoarse.

“I know. But it’s over now. Was it about the maze again?” You nod, and he sighs. “It’s okay. We’re gonna get through this. You’ll be okay.”

You nod again. You trust him completely. He’ll protect you. You know he will. “Stay with me?” you ask. His only reply is to kiss your forehead and guide you down the bed and place the pillow under your head.

Gally lies down behind you and wraps his arms around your waist. You feel safe in his arms. The way his warm skin radiates into yours makes you relax. You know his feel, and his smell. It’s comforting having him so close to you.

You take a deep breath. “Gally, what if I have another nightmare?” You’re scared, you can still feel your body shaking.

He tightens his arms around you reassuringly. “Then I’ll be here. But I’ll do my very best to keep the nightmares away.”

You exhale softly. In his arms is the safest place you could ever find. Your eyes drift shut. You know he’ll take care of you no matter what.


End file.
